Alpha and Omega
by EE's Skysong
Summary: The beginning and the end. Alice returns to the place where it started to finish it all. 'I touch the Omega symbol at my throat. Perhaps this really is the end.'They Say I'm Insane sequal


Disclaimer: "I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never wrong I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long (Erase all the pain till it's gone) I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I'm close to something real I wanna find something I've wanted all along Somewhere I belong"

(An: This is the mentioned more canon-y sequel to They Say I'm Insane. I'd highly reccomend reading this before that... and no, this has nothing to do with Curiouser and Curiouser. Before you read this, I suggest a read-through of the casebook that comes with the game. I went through it myself several times while writing this, so it would probably help.)

Alice's guardian had gotten used to the sight of the boy.

Her name was Mrs. Davies. Alice would've been sent to a boarding school, but thanks to her stay in Rutledge's, Alice was far behind the others of her age. Mrs. Davies served as a tutor/caretaker to Alice.

He introduced himself only as Cheshire. He answered all questions about himself with a large, unnerving, "I-know-more-than-you-and-it's-going-to-stay-that-way" grin. It was a common sight to the inhabitants of the house to see him stretched out on any flat, smooth surface, watching Alice. He was her only friend, and, so it seemed, vice versa. Far from a gentleman, he seemed to enjoy telling off-color jokes and watching them blush. A talent of his was sneaking and appearing out of nowhere, and he never ate with them, claiming to prefer to garner his own food.

Alice adored him, however. Her green eyes, usually dreamy and unfocused, would light up when he entered.

"How did you meet him?" Davies had asked.

"I've known Cheshire since I was small," Alice had replied. "Before- before the fire." As always she darkened when speaking of the times before. "He's the only friend I have from... back then."

As always, she could hear them talking up in Alice's room. She thought nothing of their friendship until the day Cheshire didn't show up.

(Cheshire)

THE NIGHT BEFORE...

Alice and I sit sideways on her bed, stretched out beside each other.

The subject of conversation meanders, as it always does, but there are three things we never discuss: Wonderland, Rutledge's or anything even remotely relating to it, and our own relationship. We were content to simply be together. We knew it wouldn't be this way forever.

That was why I treasured moments like this, with Alice, close enough to smell her ethreal scent.

But I don't touch her. I haven't since that kiss. It's been less than a month since I became human. We haven't spoken of it, but it's easy to tell when one of us is thinking of it. We look away if we are.

"Cheshire," Alice murmurs, snapping me back to the present.

"Yes?"

"What were you thinking about?"

A non-answer pops into my mind, and I am about to speak when a bolt of pain runs down my spine. It is brief but awful and the reply drifts off.

"Cheshire?" Alice asks, a faint note of concern creeping into her voice.

I roll onto my stomach. My back still hurts. I say nothing.

"Is something wrong?"

I force myself to say nothing, to shake my head, to keep from bursting out with a confession that _yes_, something _is_ wrong, terribly, horribly wrong.

Alice gazes at me, clearly worried now. She edges closer, resting tentative fingers on my back. The pain disappears for one sweet instant and then returns with a will, worse than before.

Once again, I keep myself still. The last thing Alice needs is to worry. Bad things happen when Alice worries.

"Cheshire?" Alice whispers.

I stand up, with less than normal of my usual grace. "I'm fine. Go to sleep, love."

Alice sits up, bites her lip, gazes at me with those beautiful green eyes. "Cheshire..." Alice repeats. She draws back in on herself, stretching out the right way on her bed. She looks as though she is about to say more, then thinks better of it.

"Good night," I whisper.

Alice says nothing but lapses into sleep.

"My dear Alice," I murmur, watching her.

A FEW HOURS LATER...

No one saw Cheshire quietly disappear, though Alice twitched in her sleep and her dreams grew dark.

PRESENT TIME...

Mrs. Davies looked up as the clock struck eight. "Alice should be awake by now," she murmured.

She went upstairs and found Alice awake and fully dressed, hugging her knees and gazing at the dresser. "Alice?"

"My rabbit's gone," Alice whispered, without taking her eyes off the bare dresser.

"Yes...?"

"You don't understand," Alice continued. "If I keep the memories close at hand, they can't swallow me."

"It probably just fell behind the dresser," Mrs. Davies responded. "We can look for it later."

Alice shivered, then looked over at her. "Yes, I suppose you're right. I'll come down now."

"All right."

All that day Cheshire didn't appear.

(Alice)

It is dark outside. Despite my repetetive searches, I have found no sign of my rabbit. Neither have I seen Cheshire. I am deeply bothered by both. At the very least, he always bids me good night.

Not so. Tonight I get something else.

Yellow eyes glint in the dark and an all-too-familiar mirthless chuckle rings through the room. "Hello Alice." The Jabberwock, both eyes, metal wings, and all, steps from the corner.

"You're not real," I whisper.

"Real enough, my dear."

"Don't you _dare_ call me that!"

He chuckles again, shaking his head. "Still running for your problems, I see."

"I don't _have_ problems," I snap. "My parents died in the fire. I escaped. I've come to terms with that now."

"Poor, poor Alice. So young, so stupid. You have other demons, Alice, ones that lurk beneath the surface. Why would the loss of a simple thing like this bother you so much, otherwise?" He holds up my rabbit.

"You _aren't_ real," I repeat.

"Keep telling yourself that," he responds. "Perhaps it will be true. Run from your evils, Alice. Deny yourself. Someday you'll break down, and what then?" He smiles, one devoid of all warmth. "Take this back, if it makes you feel better." He throws the rabbit at me and disappears, chuckling again.

I hug the toy, wishing it were Cheshire.

"Oh, Alice," a soft voice murmurs.

"W-who's there?" I light my lamp.

Sitting on my dresser, swinging his lanky legs and fiddling with his hat, is the Mad Hatter. I have never seen him so depressed.

"Hatter? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Alice," he repeats. "He's right, you know."

"How could he be? What's going on?"

He looks up, and his expression makes me want to cry, how sad it is. "Running from your problems brings more."

"But I don't _have_ problems, not anymore."

"Alice, lie to me, lie to him, lie to Cheshire, but please, don't lie to yourself."

"I... I don't understand."

"_Rutledge's_, Alice. You claim to be fine, but you wake in the midst of the night, tormented by half-memories of your time there."

I shiver, looking down at myself. Old scars cover my body, most from the fire but some... I don't even want to think of that. "How did you get here?"

"The same way Cheshire did. I followed you."

"Where is he?"

"Gone, as I soon will be."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't stay, Alice. Please, know this: your demons never stay buried. I-" He stops, looking at something I can't see. "I have to go."

"Where?"

"You know where," he replies, and disappears.

I shiver, and realize I am still clutching the forlorn rabbit.

THE NEXT DAY

It was a Saturday, and almost immediately after waking, Alice made for the door. "I'm going to the park," she announced.

Well, her destination _was_ near the park...

Rutledge's still stood, despite the fact that it had been closed. The head doctor had gone mad, and the superintendent had declared it unsafe. It was condemned, but for one reason or another it had never been knocked down.

"What am I _doing_ here?" Alice whispered. She leaned against the outer wall, her whole body trembling. "There's no reason to be here. I could go home right now, and forget this ever happened."

From the asylum came the yowl of a cat.

Without thought Alice sprang up and ran to the door. It was gigantic. She hesitated, then pushed it open just enough to allow her entry. The door shut with a forbidding slam behind her.

(Alice)

I step in further. The brown stone hallways are exactly as I remember, drab and depressing.

My footsteps echo down the hallway, but all I hear is the yowl. It was full of pain. Pain and fear.

I know it was Cheshire. But what would he be doing here? _Or better, why am I here?_ I think. Such doubts are banished by a screech intertwined without another yowl.

Allowing myself no hesitation, I walk through another door marked "Psych Ward".

I know I was here, though to my waking mind it's unfamiliar. The walls, like the rest of the building, are nondescript brownstone. _Un_like the rest of the building are the windows, barred, tiny, and the only sunlight they let through is weak, threatened within an inch of its life.

I walk on and try to ignore the annoying feeling of dread that has risen in my mind. _Come now_, I tell myself, _you weren't afraid of Wonderland, despite how frightening it was._

_Yes,_ a nasty little voice in the back of my mind responds, _but then you were armed, and had Cheshire to guide you._

"What am I doing here?" I ask.

One of the doors creaks open. I fall over in a dead faint.

I wake up with someone tapping. It's a small sound, but insistent.

Leaning over me is a boy, a teenager. For a moment, I think it's Cheshire, but only the eyes are the same. Fey eyes. Yellow eyes. Wonderland eyes. "Wake up, wake _up_, you silly girl!"

He pulls me up. Groggily, I try to recognize the voice. "...Gryphon?"

"Yes, it's me," he replies, sound peeved. "It is hardly wise to fall asleep here."

"I fainted. There's a difference."

He tugs my hand. "Come. We have much to discuss and little time." He pulls me into the open door, closing it behind us.

I touch the wall, feeling numb. "This was my room, wasn't it?"

"Yes," he responds.

"What's going on?"

"Not much," Gryphon admits. "You came here of your own accord. What are _you_ doing, Alice?"

"Looking for Cheshire," I reply, without hesitation.

"What else?"

I blink back at him, perplexed.

"You can't actually think it's that simple."

"Why are you... like that?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

He looks down at himself, then at me. "When in Rome..."

"Where is Cheshire?"

Gryphon shrugs. "I haven't seen him since he left. Probably he's here, like me and the others."

"Others?"

"There's several of us here," he replies. "Myself, Rabbit, the Hare, all in human form. We were wondering when you would show up."

_Not if but when. Do they really have that kind of faith in me?_

He peers at me intently. "Please, Alice. Do what's required of you and quickly. This isn't our place."

"Which is..."

Gryphon shakes his head. "I don't know, Alice. I'd tell you if I could, but this isn't my world. I don't understand it. This is your problem, Alice."

"How do I start? This place itself invokes no memories or anything resembling a purpose."

"That, at least, I know," Gryphon responds with a small smile. "You begin with that." He points at the ground, where something shiny and smooth appears between us.

"That" is my knife, the Vorpal Blade. I touch the Omega symbol at my throat. _Perhaps this really is the end._ Aloud, I say, "My pretty friend."

"There's my Alice," Gryphon says, truly smiling now. "Go."

I step out into the hallway. It has changed. The rug is no longer worn and faded, but rich. It's no longer silent, either. The moans of many people echo throughout it. I shudder, but notice that there aren't really any people there, just noise.

_Where? Before, I had a rabbit to follow..._

"Hurry, Alice," says a voice. "We have far to go and much to do!"

Standing at the end of the hallway is a person I haven't noticed before. He is albino, with large, watery pink eyes that never settle on anything. He walks off, and I rush to follow.

"We've much to do," Rabbit repeats.

"Would it harm you to stay at _my_ pace for once?"

"Not me, but it may someone else," he replies, hopping from foot to foot.

"Do you mean Cheshire?"

"I meant _you_, Alice, but if you hurt yourself... yes, you hurt him. You hurt us all."

"So I've been told. What do I have to do?" Rabbit blinks at me. "_What do I have to do?"_

"Follow me," he states simply, and runs off.

_Why doesn't he _ever_ wait?_ I think, a little pointlessly, as I rush after.

The screams of the damned echo through the hallway as I run.

The Rabbit takes a turn and screeches to a stop, me narrowly avoiding bumping into him. "What?" I ask.

He points, silent. Down the hallway we've come to, there is a door. It's not wide open, but I can still see... things. Jars filled with unnameable, repulsive liquids. Soft moans of pain- in sharp contrast to the screams from the hallways I came from. Somehow, they're worse. A faint, dreamlike green light flows out from it. I take a step back unconciously. "I-in there?"

"I can only show you the pathway, Alice," Rabbit murmurs. "I cannot make you go down it." Both of us stop, hearing footsteps. "Go!" he urges.

"But-"

"Death seems hardly as bad when you've been through it before, Alice," Rabbit says, a bitter little smile on his face. "Go! Please! Find the answers!"

Something turns the corner and I see a large shape in a white robe before dashing down the hallway and running through the door.

I close it behind me and pray that whatever it was is after me, and not just whatever's in its way.

There is a nasty sounding thud and then something begins to bang on the door. _So much for that theory..._

I look around and instantly regret it. Deciding that absence is the better part of valour, I run for it again.

(Jabberwock)

_Run, little girl, run..._

The Jabberwock cackled softly to himself.

"Come to me," he murmured. "I'll tell you_ everything_ you want to know."

(Alice)

The door has been broken now. I hide beneath a sodden bed- sodden with what, I can't tell, and really don't want to. The thing in the white coat- one of the orderlies, horribly caricatured, maybe?- approaches. I know I can't hide from it, and I don't plan to. That's what my Blade is for, after all. He steps in front of my bed, and I hear a sniffing noise. The feet come steadily closer, and I spring out, running him through. He disappears, leaving nothing in his wake. "No healing, this time," I murmur. "This is the real world... but where do I go now?"

I look around, and see another door. This one is shut, but I know it'll open... the question is, do I? I walk over and lay a hand on the door. It throbs with an odd heat and rythm... almost like a heartbeat. I shrink back a moment, then look around me again, seeing the awful wrongness of this room. I steel myself and open the door.

I gasp as I see the contents. People- not denizens of Wonderland changed, but real people- strapped to beds. They're screaming. A large... thing... is going around administering something to them. It makes them scream at first but after a while they become quiet... far too quiet. Then the thing turns to face me. It's a nurse. I back up a little, tightening my grip on my blade. "Now, now, deary," the nurse croaks in a voice like the Duchess's. "It'll all be over in a second." She walks forward, pulling a giant needle from her pocket.

I pause for a moment, then run at her, parrying her needle. Cheshire's voice rings in my head- _"Your knife is useful but not essential."_ Can I really beat her with just my knife?

I slash at her, and she backs off. She glares, and then rushes me. I jump atop the bed, the pillow she hits echoing what would've happened to me. I glance around, and spot something glinting on one of the shelves. The Jackbomb! I jump for it. There is an audible swish as the duchess/orderly just misses me. I grab the jackbomb and throw it. A flash of fire, an explosion, and whatever she was is gone.

I gasp. _This is not going at all as I planned,_ I think, then pause. _I planned this?_ I shiver a little as I realize that yes, I did, I always had aspirations to return to Rutledge's and discover what I'd lost there, but then I'd found out it'd been closed (not without a slight sigh of relief).

I shake myself, trying to focus. _I need to find Cheshire. When I do_­- for I refuse to believe that I won't- _I can leave and never think of any of this again._

I look around the room, searching for an exit, or better yet, a clue. I spot it in the form of a patient, whom the orderly had yet to get to. Of course, he doesn't look much more lucid or helpful than the other, (supposedly) unconcious patients, but it's somewhere, anyway. I walk over.

The boy is staring straight ahead, his focus seemingly on nothing and everything. I take a few steps forward. "Hello?" I ask. Nothing in his expression or posture changes, but I know he heard me, and somehow acknowledged me.

After a moment, he says, "It's not polite to stare, you know." He twitches slightly.

"And it's not polite to ignore a greeting."

"What would you prefer- 'how d'you do' and shake hands?" He holds up his own. "The shake I can manage, the 'how d'you do' I already know. So what's the point?"

"It's still not good manners."

"It's not good manners to blow up someone up, either, but that certainly didn't stop you."

"She wasn't real and you know it."

"What is real?"

"Why are you asking questions I can't answer?"

This gives him pause. "Oh, all right, I'll give you as straight an answer as I can. Go that way." He points the way I came in. "Follow the hallway. Don't stop. No matter what you hear, don't turn, don't pause, don't stumble. Get to the end, and you'll find something worth knowing... if it doesn't drive you mad."

"Well, I'm already mad, so it's not a problem."

"You say that now," the boy responds, and twitches again.

I look at the door he pointed to. It was the way I came in, but if this place behaves any way like Wonderland, then it won't matter. And I've found that it's never a good idea to deviate from advice someone gives you. I sigh, and head for the door.

Behind me, the boy begins to laugh. Or sob. The two seem interchangeable.

I walk out. The creepy greenish room I left behind is gone, to be replaced by a hallway similar to the one I collapsed in. Except that the lanterns are all a faintly green color. They're spiderlike and their light is cold. I run my fingers over the flat of the knife nervously. I take a deep breath to regain my composure and start down the hall.

I glance down at the carpet, to avoid looking at the lamps- I keep expecting them to leap down and attack me. _You're doing this for Cheshire. Just remember that._

Then the screams start.

I know them. I've heard them once before- in the maze that was the Mad Hatter's clockwork hall. They are the screams of insane children, and also of my childhood friends, the Dormouse and the March Hare. I shiver, and remember the boy's words. _I'll not be stopped so easily, you'll see._ I keep walking.

I falter a bit when I see the lamps jump down, just as I knew they would, but I don't let myself pause, not for a moment.

And the lamps don't attack. They scuttle back and forth along the walls, but do nothing to me and come no closer.

I walk up to yet another doorway. I open it... and I step into a field.

I look around, confused. _What on earth?_

"We're not on earth, you see," a voice says.

I jump and whirl, the blade already out and ready in my hand.

"It would be kinder if you hadn't missed," the Mad Hatter sighs.

"How did you get here?"

"The same way you did... mostly."

I frown at him. "I haven't the time for games. I'm looking for Cheshire."

"I know you are. And he's looking for you. But you won't find him here, and he won't find you either."

"What do you mean?"

"We aren't on earth, I said. Look around you, Alice."

I do... and my breath catches in my throat.

I am standing in Wonderland. Not the horrible one of the asylum, _my_ Wonderland. The way it was. "How...?"

"I wouldn't know," he replies. "But it's not real."

I bend down and touch the grass. "It feels real."

"So do many things that aren't," and there is an edge to his words.

"It isn't real," I murmur. "But it never was. It wasn't supposed to be."

"Do you like it here, Alice?" he asks, and his voice has changed somehow.

"Of course I do," I say, and I glance at him curiously. His eyes have changed as well, but I cannot name the reason I think that.

"Do you want to stay?"

"No."

"Why not? This is all you ever wanted as a child."

"Yes," I agree, and I take a longing glance around. "But I'm not a child anymore, and you said yourself Cheshire won't find me here. So do you know how to leave?"

"Like this!" I have to duck quickly to avoid his cane coming down on my head. I feel the air whip past my face as he misses.

I whirl, the knife in my hand. _I'm not going to be able to beat him, not with this._ I throw the Jackbomb and dodge the flames, but even that doesn't faze him much.

I jump into a tree, and he gets the sharp end of his cane stuck in the bark of the tree. I take the second given to inspect him. _What has changed?_

And then I spot it- a gear cog, sticking out from beneath his top hat. I jump down, throwing my knife at the gear. There is a cracking noise as it shatters. The Vorpal Blade comes boomeranging back and I grab it.

The Hatter lands facedown in the dirt.

"Hatter?" I ask.

"Thank you," he whispers. A shiver runs down his spine and he disappears.

Then the whole world fades away.

(Jabberwock)

The Jabberwock hissed in displeasure as Alice destroyed his illusion. _This girl is more trouble then I thought... I'll just have to be more inventive._

(Alice)

I am left standing in a normal room. It truly is normal- no screams, no blood on the walls, no weird things in jars, just a desk and a few chairs. However, this is as confusing to me as the fake Wonderland.

I walk up to the desk and find a book on it. The front reads _Rutledge Private Clinic and Asylum Casebook._ I step a little bit closer so I can read the rest, written in a thin, spidery hand "Patient: Alice. Date Admitted: 4 November 1864. Physician: Heironymous Q. Wilson."

My hand shakes a little as I open flip open the book, quickly, as though it might bite me.

The pages all bear that same, spidery writing, with some exerpts in red ink with later dates, as though from a later reading.

The words tell me little I didn't know, at first. Just Wilson's ramblings about my "curious condition" and "comatose state." As if he really knew what was going on! I pause at September 7, 1873- my own drawing of the Cheshire Cat, lounging in his favorite tree.

"Unconcerning, you think," says a voice from behind me. I freeze. I know that voice- too often has it haunted my nightmares. "You're not far enough yet, my dear."

"Don't call me that," I say instantly. "I'm no friend of yours." My hand goes to my pocket and the Vorpal Blade. I know it will be little help against such a foe, but having it in my hand is a comfort. I turn, slowly.

As I thought, the Jabberwock is standing there, his smile cruel. "Did you miss me, Alice?"

"Not in the faintest," I mutter. "Why do you darken my doorway?"

"You called me, Alice," he replies. "Awoke me from my sleep with your prodding in things you don't know. After all, I'm just the embodiment of your guilty conscience. Or so would say the man who wrote that curious book you're holding."

I replace the book on the desk. "What do you want?" I repeat.

"Just a talk, Alice, just a talk."

I snort.

"Do you doubt me, little girl?"

"Where's Cheshire?"

"Why would I know?"

I just stare at him.

"He's here, all right," the Jabberwock admits. "And you're very close to finding him. But you'll have to finish reading that book first. And before you can do that, you'll have to defeat me."

"I'm terrified, I'm certain," I respond. "I've done it before and I can certainly do it again. This is my world."

"But do you know it well enough to fight here?" the Jabberwock replies. "I think not. At least, not with that."

"This blade has served me well," I say, taking it fully out of my pocket. "When one cannot depend on friends, one can always depend on weapons."

"A pretty sentiment," the Jabberwock replies. "But hardly substantial."

"_Enough,_" I say. "Either come here and fight me, or trouble me no more!"

"As you wish," he says, with a little mocking bow, and then lets off a blast of fire from his mouth.

I jump to avoid it, leaping over the desk and landing behind it. I grab the book to spare it the flames.

"Don't worry about that, girl," the Jabberwock growls. "Worry about your own stinking skin."

I hear him coming closer and look around me, desperate. And then I see it. About five feet away, in a glass cabinet, is the Blunderbuss.

Apparently, the Jabberwock spots it as well, because he growls, "Oh, no you don't."

I leap to my feet and dash over to the cabinet. I smash the glass and grab the musket-like toy, crying out as the Jabberwock's fire catches its mark. Slipping to my knees and trying to ignore the pain in my shoulder, I whirl to face him.

"Go ahead and use it on me, girl," he says, spreading his arms. "I know it exhausts you. And one hit isn't enough to take me out. This is the real world, Alice. There's no salvation for you here."

I just blasted him. I never was much for talk.

The Jabberwock let out a pained gasp, doubling over.

"You forget the power behind it is my force of will," I say, ducking behind the desk again to recover. "And right now, my will couldn't be stronger."

"Foolish girl," mutters the Jabberwock. "Make it easy on yourself. Take a quick but painful death, like your parents."

"You're not going to get me with tricks like that," I say. "I've told you already, so stop wasting your breath."

"I have other ways, girl." A cruel smile appears on his face. "Surely you remember now? The burns, so long in healing? They still pain you on cold nights. And the bloodletting? You were pleased by that, weren't you? It brought you closer to the death you sought."

"Be _quiet,_" I snap. I jump atop the desk again and throw the Vorpal Blade at him.

I only did this because the Blade was the only usable toy at the moment, but it has quite an effect. The Jabberwock grunts and pulls it out of his stomach. "I remember this, oh yes," he murmurs, inspecting it. "Little girl has learned her lessons."

"Snicker-snack," I reply.

He tosses the knife aside and spreads his wings. "I tire of this, Alice," he says. He takes off, swooping above me and landing hard on the desk. If I hadn't guessed his motive and sprang aside myself, I would've suffered its fate. I still get hit with some of the shrapnel, though, but I missed the worst of it. I throw part of the desk at him. He ducks, and the toss achieves what I wanted- time. I run over to the cabinets again and set my finger on the trigger of the Blunderbuss.

"Not again," he says, seeing my plan. He takes off and tries to land on me again, making me do a sort of slide across the ground that scrapes my knees and rips my dress.

"This is my favorite frock, too," I mutter.

"Vanity isn't a good thing, Alice," says the Jabberwock. "Always was one of your faults."

"I know," I reply. "You've told me. I just don't care." I look around, and see that I have ended up next to my knife. I pick it up and an idea pops into my head.

"You can't use two weapons at once, you know," the Jabberwock chides. "Off-form. Besides, whichever you choose, it won't matter."

He opens his mouth to blast fire at me again, but I'm too quick. I throw the Vorpal Blade, praying it will have the same strong effect, followed by a shot of the Blunderbuss.

A trickle of fire comes out of the Jabberwock's mouth, but this causes him to almost swallow the knife and the Blunderbuss's blast.

The Jabberwock lets out a choking gasp and dissolves, splattering blood and such all over the walls, as well as my good frock.

"Oh, thank goodness that's over," I murmur, sinking to my feet. I pressed my palms against my eyes, letting out a slow breath.

After a moment, I stood up, looking around. Seeing no imminent threat, I walked over to the ruins of the desk and sorted through them, finding the book amazingly unharmed. I brush some dust off the cover, flip to the picture of the Cheshire Cat, and go through the rest of the book.

It's impossible to describe what goes through my mind. Some things I realize made it through the haze in my brain- Wilson's description of the brutish orderlies, for example, makes me think of the Tweedles- and some things were described to him myself. The book is littered with my drawings of Wonderland and Wilson's own later, speculative notes.

The last entry is marked "24 August 1874." It is a couplet, reading "If it's my keen invention you'd like to destroy, I'll withstand your best shot, I've got the right toy."

I shut the book, brushing my hair behind my ears. I feel no different, except now I know where the scars all over my body come from. I shiver a little. If I have come to make peace with my past, as all my friends claimed, I haven't done so.

I sit there for a moment more, then remember my errand. _Cheshire!_ I have almost forgotten his plight with everything else. "But where do I go now?" I ask of no one. "There's nowhere to go but back."

As soon as I speak these words, the book quivers in my hand. I drop it and step back. It's glowing. I frown, bend down, and touch it, hesitantly. Sparks fly from my contact. I back off again, quickly. The book flips to a picture of the Fungiferous Forest and begins to spin.

I gasp as the book spins more rapidly and becomes something I know- a whirl of color and light surrounded by a wooden frame. A portal, in other words.

_Take me home, please,_ I think, touching it.

&&&

Alice landed hard out of the portal, as was always the case.

"We were wondering when you'd show up," said a voice.

She pushed herself up, and there was the Gryphon, back to his proper shape and looking quite pleased. Standing beside him and smiling was the Mad Hatter, and jittering about and glancing at his watch and looking as cheerful as he could was the White Rabbit.

"It's a wonderful thing, being back, isn't it?" the Gryphon went on as Alice stood. "I'm a bit stiff myself, but everything around me quite makes up for it."

Alice turned in a slow circle, looking around herself, amazed. Wonderland was alive again, the way it had been in the Jabberwock's vision, pure and insane as it was supposed to be. "But where's-" Alice began.

A figure dropped from a tree in front of her. "Where else?" Cheshire asked, spreading his arms and smiling slightly.

Alice bit her lip and slowly walked over by him. He took her hand. "Why aren't you-" she gestured at the others, "-like them?"

"Because I don't want to be that way, obviously," Cheshire replied. His smirk was in full force as he added, "I couldn't do something like this if I were." He leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips.

(Can you tell I like ending it with a kiss? I also like sending Alice back to Wonderland. But you know what I like best? Reviews!)


End file.
